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First of all my thanks to all the current executive for their volunteer time and efforts over this past year! I can't believe the year has gone by so quickly! In response to Brian's post, I also would like to know about the AGM and when or where it will take place? Are the current executive running again for next year? If not, how many positions need to be filled? If we have people we would like to nominate for a position they need time to get their informations in order, for the community to get to know them and ask any questions...Being a past director I know how hard it is to get a date set that works for everyone...however since the last post I haven't heard anything..Are there any new policies in place? Has electronic voting moved forward? Would you be making an event out of the meeting like last year? It was fun to combine business with pleasure and hopefully we'll have some news soon!

If memory serves me right, an executive can run a society registered in British Columbia up to 15 months. So, if the last AGM was on November 1st the BCGA must post an AGM announcement no later than January 1st and hold the AGM no later than February 1st.

Thanks for your questions everyone. While the executive hasn't yet approved the official AGM date (it will be mid-January), we have approved the location.

I'm happy to announce that the next AGM will be held in Nanaimo, BC, at a location as yet to be determined. We discussed this topic at length and with the geocaching community growing ever larger on the Island, we made the unanimous decision to have it outside of the Lower Mainland/Fraser Valley for the first time ever. We're very excited about the location and we hope that you are too.

Tom (c2c2c) is currently working with Rory (bcrockcrawler) to secure a convenient location that's a close as possible to the ferry terminal in Nanaimo. This way, we're hoping that as many members as possible can car pool to the terminal, walk on the ferry and be able to attend.

More information with be forthcoming and we do plan on formally announcing the date of the AGM 45 days prior in order to ensure that everyone has ample planning time.

As for the other questions...

Q: Are the current executive running again for next year? If not, how many positions need to be filled?
A: All positions have to be filled for the next term as all 7 Directors are finished unless re-elected. It's unknown at this time whether the current Directors will be running again or not.

Q: If we have people we would like to nominate for a position they need time to get their informations in order, for the community to get to know them and ask any questions...
A: Historically, the call for nominations has been put out between 30 and 45 days prior to the AGM, which we plan on doing again this year.

Q: Are there any new policies in place?
A: There was a bylaw committee formed during the transition from the past executive to the current executive, however that committee never gained the traction to make any major changes. As such, the current executive does not forsee any major bylaw changes occurring at the AGM.

Q: Has electronic voting moved forward?
A: Henry has spent a significant amount of time in developing the BCGA's electronic voting system, however he's still not confident that it's 100% and we simply haven't had the time to put it through a barrage of tests. Hence, the executive has unanimously approved the use of the tried and true ballot and proxy system to be used again (same as the last AGM).

Q: Would you be making an event out of the meeting like last year?
A: We will have an event published for the AGM, but beyond that, we don't have any further details at this time.

Last edited by Teddy2k on Tue Nov 16, 2010 10:06 am; edited 2 times in total

Thanks for your questions everyone. While the executive hasn't yet approved the official AGM date (it will be mid-January), we have approved the location.

I'm happy to announce that the next AGM will be held in Nanaimo, BC, at a location as yet to be determined. We discussed this topic at length and with the geocaching community growing ever larger on the Island, we made the unanimous decision to have it outside of the Lower Mainland/Fraser Valley for the first time ever. We're very excited about the location and we hope that you are too.

Tom (c2c2c) is currently working with Rory (bcrockcrawler) to secure a convenient location that's a close as possible to the ferry terminal in Nanaimo. This way, we're hoping that as many members as possible can car pool to the terminal, walk on the ferry and be able to attend.

More information with be forthcoming and we do plan on formally announcing the date of the AGM 45 days prior in order to ensure that everyone has ample planning time.

As for the other questions...

Q: Are the current executive running again for next year? If not, how many positions need to be filled?
A: All positions have to be filled for the next term as all 7 Directors are finished unless re-elected. It's unknown at this time whether the current Directors will be running again or not.

Q: If we have people we would like to nominate for a position they need time to get their informations in order, for the community to get to know them and ask any questions...
A: Historically, the call for nominations has been put out between 30 and 45 days prior to the AGM, which we plan on doing again this year.

Q: Are there any new policies in place?
A: There was a bylaw committee formed during the transition from the past executive to the current executive, however that committee never gained the traction to make any major changes. As such, the current executive does not forsee any major bylaw changes occurring at the AGM.

Q: Has electronic voting moved forward?
A: Henry has spent a significant amount of time in developing the BCGA's electronic voting system, however he's still not confident that it's 100% and we simply haven't had the time to put it through a barrage of tests. Hence, the executive has unanimously approved the use of the tried and true ballot and proxy system to be used again (same as the last AGM).

Q: Would you be making an event out of the meeting like last year?
A: We will have an event published for the AGM, but beyond that, we don't have any further details at this time.

Nanaimo!

AWESOME!!!!!
I`ll have to stop by even though I can`t yet vote (just wait until May!)

Annual general meeting
56 (1) The first annual general meeting of the members of a society must be held not more than 15 months after the date of incorporation, and after that an annual general meeting of the society must be held at least once in every calendar year and not more than 15 months after the adjournment of the previous annual meeting.

(2) Despite subsection (1), the registrar may at any time extend the time within which a society is required to hold an annual general meeting.

As I read it, _both_ conditions must apply, every calender year AND no more than 15 months apart, not or 15 months apart.

With the last AGM in November 2009 and the next to be in January 2011, there is an entire calender year missed, and the 15 months is meaningless.

Thanks so much for all the clarifications Ted and I think it's going to be awesome to have the AGM on the Island! Great Idea! Mr. Kaswa I would love to see you throw your hat in the ring for exec for next year if you understand all these bylaws and such...I'm sure it would be a relief for the next incoming executive to have someone on board to be able to guide them on all these rules!!!

Well Board of Directors? Why are we having our AGM after the end of 2010? Did you get permission from the registrar to contravene our own bylaws as well as the society act?

Highmaintenance: I know that I do not play well with others so, no, I will not run for the board. And I would sincerely hope that the membership would prefer it if each individual board member could work their own way through a single sentence with one conjunction without my help.

There have been several occasions where the period between BCGA elections exceeded 12 months. The reasons varied such as moving the election date to a more convenient month. When I was on the executive in 2007-08 I recall staying on for a full 15 months. I forget who contacted the government but I seem to remember that the Registrar of Societies was not concerned just as long as the latter rule (no longer than 15 months) was observed. And we were not the first to do it. The precedent for extending periods between elections beyond 12 months was set as early as 2005. It has never been an issue until now.

When I contacted the Registrar this morning they informed me that there is no issue in extending the date from a "calendar year" to within 15 months if they receive a letter from us to extend the date. We will be having a discussion and will let everyone know within the next day or two. Thanks again.

As per Sec 56 of the Act - A letter requesting the allowance of an extension to hold our AGM on Jan 15th 2011 was faxed to the BC Registry Service today. The approval will be added to the site when it is received by our treasurer. Thanks again for your patience.

As per Sec 56 of the Act - A letter requesting the allowance of an extension to hold our AGM on Jan 15th 2011 was faxed to the BC Registry Service today. The approval will be added to the site when it is received by our treasurer. Thanks again for your patience.

If your request is approved by the registrar, then no current 2010 member will be able to vote on any business in what should be the current calander year AGM. Please also confirm with the registrar that they approve of the fact that in order to vote in this postponed AGM, each current member will have to renew his or her membership for 2011. Somehow this must be addressed, and I would think must be approved by the current membership.

Please also give some reasoning for postponing the AGM until 2011. The executive must have had a reason for making that decision.

All members who wish to renew their membership will have already renewed for 2011 as all renewals must be done before the end of the calendar year. Any member who lets their membership lapse must then re-apply to become a member again, which can be done at the AGM if required. I don't see there being any issues on that front.

There are a couple of reasons why we chose Jan. 15, 2011:
- Our obligation to Metro Vancouver. The last geocaching session of the year is this Saturday and we wanted to complete that before passing along the reigns to the new executive team.
- Membership renewals. Last year, we were thrown immediately into the task of handling the membership renewals and for a new executive team, it's a stressful thing to have to worry about when you haven't even settled into your new position yet.
- Christmas. At this point, we could hold it in late December, however, we felt that our members would appreciate having that time to spend with family and loved ones.

Once we've made the necessary preparations, we will put out the official notice of the AGM and open the nominations up to the members. We'll also be communicating more information via email when it's available.

The one challenge with a mid-winter date is that traveling from anywhere in the Interior to the Coast will mean a journey over snowy passes. Considering that 4 of our zones are in the Interior, the date chosen may exclude half of the province (by area). Hopefully someone will come down, but it will a weather-dependent journey.

I believe that if not enough / any people run for positions, that the current executive, or at least enough of them to fill positions are obligated to stay on.

Also,
The Renewal prompts (top of home page , obvious) usually start in Early December. Of course if the Executive wants to send out some email reminders for those of us who do not visit the site too often, it's an easy thing to do. If anything the AGM date might make our members a little more pro-active about renewing.

I believe that if not enough / any people run for positions, that the current executive, or at least enough of them to fill positions are obligated to stay on.

Also,
The Renewal prompts (top of home page , obvious) usually start in Early December. Of course if the Executive wants to send out some email reminders for those of us who do not visit the site too often, it's an easy thing to do. If anything the AGM date might make our members a little more pro-active about renewing.

BCGA AGM was normally held in November......that was OK for folk who had to travel before the Christmas season & before the nasty weather set in. I dont understand why the AGM keeps being pushed back further into the winter & thereby making it more difficult for folk to attend.
I want to have a vote on this year's business. That is my right as a 2010 member.

I believe that if not enough / any people run for positions, that the current executive, or at least enough of them to fill positions are obligated to stay on.

Also,
The Renewal prompts (top of home page , obvious) usually start in Early December. Of course if the Executive wants to send out some email reminders for those of us who do not visit the site too often, it's an easy thing to do. If anything the AGM date might make our members a little more pro-active about renewing.

BCGA AGM was normally held in November......that was OK for folk who had to travel before the Christmas season & before the nasty weather set in. I dont understand why the AGM keeps being pushed back further into the winter & thereby making it more difficult for folk to attend.
I want to have a vote on this year's business. That is my right as a 2010 member.

Mr. Wilson -- your answer is on this thread above. Apparently the electronic voting system has to go through a set of tests before the program would be considered safe and secure to use for something as important as an AGM.

Solonm -- Actually, the BCGA AGMs have been all over the calendar. June (2004), May (2005), August (2006), October (2007), November (2008,09). EGMs have been held in January (2006), October (2006).

Reasons for the changes vary. Although winter may not be the perfect time to host a meeting, sometimes it is unavoidable.

Autumn, Winter is traditionally the time the BCGA works on behind the scenes paperwork -- a job that can be overwhelming to a society in transition where the new administration is trying to settle in and learn the basics. The current administration also had unfinished business with Metro Parks. So, I think it's a good idea to switch over after the end of the calendar year. It will make it much easier for the next administration to ease into the job. The next board of directors may think about hanging on a bit longer than 12 months to move the AGM into spring.

It's my hope that all geocachers would care. Every time the BCGA helps set up a positive geocaching policy with any parks board who calls on the BCGA, it is one step closer to doing the same with every civic parks board across the province -- including Creston and Prince George. It's to the benefit of everyone.

It's in the best interest that the people who have been working with the government to finish the job -- even if it means moving the AGM around a bit. The alternative is throwing a new administration into a large project with no background. It really isn't fair to throw the tail end of a project onto a new administration. Besides, the current administration is working well within the 15 month allotted time frame.

I for one do not see the problem with allowing the directors to finish the task at hand. Hopefully next year will see electronic voting so travelling to an AGM should not be an issue.

I want to have a vote on this year's business. That is my right as a 2010 member.

There is no such thing as a 2010 member, or a 2011, or a 2009.

A person is or is not a member. The requirement of annual verification is because societies must have an up-to-date membership list, if a member does not validate their particulars, they are off the rolls until they do.

In a few weeks every member can decide not to update their status when the little reminder pops up. So the ability to have a say is fully in a members hand, not in the Executives hands.

There is always a travel issue no matter what time of year, we live in a big province, and most members are not that interested in the AGM enough to come in person. In the past we had maybe 50-60 people attend the meeting, many with proxy votes. There was not a large 'Island' contingent. This year I'd expect a larger Island representation, and less from even the lower mainland, and probably the same numbers in total. Hey Island cachers show us up!

Hats off the executive for bringing the AGM to a new location and to the volunteers arranging the event. I can't say I'll attend, but I will have my say with a proxy vote at least, or at most, I get a day of caching in Nanaimo. On that note, it would be a weekend would it not?

I agree; hats off to the executive and any volunteer! Sadly, it seems there continues to be more interest in questioning the decisions made by our elected volunteer BCGA executive year after year. I would love for everyone that has other ideas and solutions, to sign up and ask to be elected to the executive for the upcoming year. Truthfully... there is much more time involved, taken away from your personal enjoyment of the caching world and your home life than one would like to believe. I look forward to seeing the BCGA as a place to look for help, information and less interest in our pitfalls and mistakes of being human.

I would like to express my appreciation to the current Executive board members for their valuables contributions they have made this past year to Geocaching in BC.

When we founded the BCGA in 2003, the first directors recognized that we were only temporary caretakers of this Association and that it would be up to the future Executive boards follow through on the mission by doing the actual heavy lifting.

Volunteering your time and effort and resources for this association is largely a thankless job and those volunteers efforts largely go unrecognized. I applaud the efforts made by the current Executive in the successes made in securing a geocaching policy with Metro Vancouver Parks. This is a significant agreement which will likely be referenced, duplicated and used as a base model for other jurisdictions, not only in BC, but perhaps in other provinces as well.

I believe it is critical for current Executive to complete the work that they have done with Metro Parks and the importance of this should not understated. As such, the timing of the AGM should be considered secondary and convening in January fulfills both obligations.

I look forward to attending the AGM in January so I can personally thank Executive for all of their efforts during the past year.

I don’t believe the BCGA could EVER satisfy every member every year with the choice of location and the date of the AGM. There will always be a bad date and a bad location. If you can make it great! If you can’t, send along your proxy vote with some one.

I believe holding the AGM on Vancouver Island is a great idea. With a province so big there has always been a challenge to get the most cachers out to an AGM.

Thank you to this year’s exec for their hard work and the time and energy that takes to run an association. And thank you for completing the work with Metro Vancouver Parks that was started with the last exec.

It's true that no date will please everyone, and I know that the weather offers no guarantees, but there must be a better time than the dead of winter?

Personally I like that the AGM is to be on the island, it should move around to different regions. It is also true that no location will ever please everyone. There is not much that can be done about this other than perhaps to get a group together and offer to volunteer to organize the AGM in your own area. Perhaps some sort of arrangement could be worked into the bylaws that the AGM rotates from region to region? There would of course have to be provisions in place that if a local group cannot be found in time to organize for the next region and other contingencies that might arise, but perhaps something can be done?

I have no doubt that getting thrown into the membership renewals as the first thing a board has to do could be overwhelming. However if it is such a big problem then perhaps this issue will need to be dealt with as it will only take 3 or 4 boards going the 15 months again until they are right back in the same boat.

One thing about the electronic voting makes me curious, can it be used for resolutions or would resolutions only be decided by the people who would go to the meeting?

Any time is better than the dead of winter but it just can't be helped sometimes. I remember when I was on the board of directors we did not want to schedule an EGM in January because it looked like we had no clue to the weather conditions anywhere outside the south western tip of British Columbia. But if we held out until Prince George thawed out we would have been twiddling our thumbs for the first five months while nothing got done. Resolutions simply had to go to a public vote if we were to continue with some major projects.

Not every executive chooses to stay on for 15 months. The reason the 15 month period has been so prominent in the past is the mere fact that nobody wanted to run for the next election. The extra three months was usually spent begging people to consider being on the board of directors.

Traditionally, resolutions are proposed in the letter sent to members a month ahead of the AGM. That gives the membership time to mull it over and be ready for a discussion at an AGM. With electronic voting, I would hope that resolutions could be discussed on the forums prior to an electronic vote. I simply assumed that resolutions, along with the board of directors, could be done with an electronic vote. However, come to think of it, I'm not sure any more. Really good question.

Speaking as a member of the previous executive, we had hoped that electronic voting would solve the challenges of traveling to the AGM. If it can be achieved, it will help with the mid-winter challenge. BTW, wer chose Hope last year because it is the mid-point between the winter-bound regionsd province and the southwest rain zone.

I have no issue with the vote taking place in January, if it was put off until spring people would complain about the 15 months, if it was held in December, people would complain about it being too close to the holidays. I think it's also great that it is being held on the island to allow those cachers easier access to the meeting.

We have received the "approval" document from the Registrar to hold the AGM Jan 15th, 2011.
The location is still being worked out.
We will let everyone know as soon as we make the Official Announcement.
We plan to have the announcement out at the beginning of December.
Start thinking about who you might like to see volunteering on the Board for the next year, and be ready with your nominations when it comes time.... It is never too early to start campaigning.

Thank you very much for all the kind words and support, it means more than you will ever know!

titelines wrote... Start thinking about who you might like to see volunteering on the Board for the next year, and be ready with your nominations when it comes time.... It is never too early to start campaigning.

I, Scruffster, nominate all of the current executive to stay on another year!!!

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